Chapter 46: Ferocious

The sun sank below the western mountains, and the daylight suddenly plummeted into gloom.

The aroma of food drifted through the air. The stubborn donkey in the courtyard was chewing on dry grass when a flurry of urgent knocks suddenly pounded on the door.

"Hook, go open the door! I've got my hands full here!"

A moment later, Hook emerged wearing a tattered, cotton-padded jacket with frayed seams, shuffling in a pair of cloth shoes as he crossed the courtyard. He muttered curses under his breath and unlatched the heavy gate.

"Be on your way! Our proprietor is no longer running an inn!"

Lately, speaking these words had become a routine habit for him. In accordance with Proprietor Feng's instructions, even long-time regular customers were to be turned away without exception.

Yet today, he froze.

Nobody was outside?

Hook poked his head out, looking left and right.

At the end of the alley, save for a skin-and-bones stray dog, not a single living creature was in sight.

Hook could not help but let out a curse. Tipping his head sideways, he pulled the gate shut while wondering which neighborhood brat had taken to playing malicious pranks.

To his utter astonishment, the moment he turned back around, he discovered that a youth in his mid-teens was standing right in the middle of the courtyard. The boy was leveling a C96 "box cannon" handgun squarely at him, issuing a cold and menacing threat: "Don't move!"

Hook's face tightened in recognition as he took in the intruder's appearance.

It was precisely this kid who had forced him to subsist on watery gruel for an entire month, leaving him unable to afford even a single dumpling during the Lunar New Year.

"You little punk, you actually dare to come back?"

Seeing that Hook was missing a front tooth, Jiang Xiaodao deliberately goaded him with a smirk. "What did you say? I can't hear you! My ears are in the way, they aren't nearly as keen as those two empty holes in your head!"

"Fuck your mother! Relying on some wild father, you're back here running wild again? Where are the rest of them? If you've got balls, come out and face me one-on-one!"

Hook glanced all around, constantly guarding against any movement along the courtyard walls.

Jiang Xiaodao snapped back, "Stop fucking looking! I came alone!"

The words had barely left his mouth when a sharp scream pierced the air from behind.

Old Mrs. Feng, carrying a large bowl, had just stepped out of the room. At the sight before her, her hands convulsed, and the large bowl instantly slipped from her grasp, shattering into eight pieces on the ground!

"L-Little... little brother, your name is Xiaodao, right? When did you get here?" Seeing the box cannon, Old Mrs. Feng immediately began to tremble. "My good man, what are you doing? Put the gun down, let's talk this out properly. Last time was all a misunderstanding! I already had Hook deliver those thirty taels of silver from your father to 'String-of-Red' in Fengtian!"

"You sent it away?"

Jiang Xiaodao turned his body slightly, ensuring that his peripheral vision could still catch Old Mrs. Feng's every move.

"Then how much money do you have left right now?"

***

Hearing this, Old Mrs. Feng's eyes rolled as she hurriedly chimed in, "Oh, my good brother, so it turns out you're short on cash! When walking the rivers and lakes, we must help one another out; everyone hits hard times and needs a favor now and then. This is easily settled! However much money you need, just name it! But let's keep things civil, you... you put that gun down first."

Jiang Xiaodao kept the pistol raised. "Don't ask how much I need—give me everything you have!"

Those words carried only one attribute—raw, unadulterated overbearing dominance!

He was blatantly holding her up, yet he still had the nerve to ask her how much he needed?

Jiang Xiaodao thought to himself: And they call her a seasoned veteran of the underworld? Before he even fired a shot, her brain had already turned to mush out of sheer terror!

In truth, she simply hadn't grasped the reality of the situation.

Why was the moniker "Sea Eagle" so feared throughout the underworld?

When it all came down to it, when bandits from the green woods infiltrated the mundane civilian world, it was equivalent to Lord Guan slaughtering petty thugs—they simply weren't in the same league!

To say nothing of the fact that Jiang Xiaodao had spent days steeped in Wang Guihe's bandit camp, let alone his "uncles"—well over half of them were either rogue soldiers or hardened bandits. The games they played were far wilder than anything in the mundane underworld.

The so-called "ferocity" of the pugilistic world was as mundane to the bandits as eating and sleeping.

By this point, Old Mrs. Feng had also figured it out. She stammered, "Good brother... as long as you don't shoot, anything can be discussed. Wait a moment, I-I'll go inside and get it for you."

"Proprietor!" Hook suddenly bellowed. "Don't go! You don't need to be afraid of him!"

Old Mrs. Feng froze in her tracks. "Hook, what kind of foolish nonsense are you talking about? He has a gun!"

"He doesn't dare shoot!" Hook sneered. "Kid, how old are you anyway? Have you ever even killed a person, huh? Do you think holding a pistol makes you the Emperor?"

He refused to believe it!

In the span of a mere month, could this kid really transform from a helpless chick waiting to be slaughtered into a bloodthirsty, desperate killer?

When Hook had first severed the hands and feet of those orphans, he hadn't been nearly that casual about it.

If killing people were truly that simple, the world would have long since turned into a living hell!

Besides, the kid wasn't backed into a desperate corner right now, nor was it an absolute necessity for him to fire. There was no reason for him to be bluffed!

Hook stood silently for a moment. Seeing that Jiang Xiaodao did not react, he figured his speculation was most likely correct. Thus, his courage grew steadily bolder, and eventually, he began taking tentative steps forward toward Jiang Xiaodao.

"Kid, understand now? Killing people isn't as simple as you think! If you put the gun down now, I can promise not to kill—"

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

......

A short while earlier, in a corner not far from Old Mrs. Feng's courtyard gate, Guan Wei and Gong Baonan were secretly monitoring Jiang Xiaodao's every move.

"Number Seven, look at that! The kid's comprehension is really quite good! This move is called 'The Old Ghost Knocks on the Door'—you knock twice, then immediately double back, crawl up and squat on the wall. As soon as someone from inside comes out, you drop right in. I only taught him that two days ago. Not bad, not bad!"

Gong Baonan cast a disgusted sidelong glance at Guan Wei and muttered, "What kind of good things could you possibly teach?"

"Hey! Aren't you just pure righteousness! You're the upright magistrate, right? Crows are black the whole world over, what kind of big pretentious wolf are you playing here?"

Gong Baonan shook his head. "What the hell is the use of dropping in? People haven't even gone to sleep yet at this hour. With his martial skills, going in there is just getting himself caught!"

"Not necessarily!" Guan Wei countered. "An exceptional master trains brilliant disciples, understand? When I was his age, I could snatch the undershirts right off young brides' kangs!"

"Pervert!" Gong Baonan reminded him, "I'm telling you, he hasn't even pledged allegiance to the underworld brotherhood yet. Doing this is breaking the rules!"

"Oh, it's nothing. If worse comes to worst, I'll go find Ninth Master Zhang later and help him pay the initiation dues."

"You just keep spoiling him!"

"Do you even have the nerve to lecture me?" Guan Wei scolded. "Don't forget, you're the one who saved this kid in the first place! Otherwise, we would have been back in Fengtian ages ago!"

Gong Baonan sighed. "I probably shouldn't have saved him!"

"Shh!" Guan Wei cocked his ear. "Sounds like there's movement!"

Gong Baonan heard it too and immediately moved to investigate.

Guan Wei hastily grabbed him back. "What's the rush? Eldest Brother said we aren't to interfere unless there's mortal danger! The whole point is to let him practice! Besides, Old Mrs. Feng knows he's Eldest Brother's son, and she was scared witless last time—how would she ever dare lay a hand on him? I reckon she might even hand over some money directly!"

"A bit of money isn't going to save Ol—"

Before the words could fully leave his mouth, two sharp gunshots rang out from within the courtyard!

Guan Wei and Gong Baonan locked eyes. Without exchanging a single word, they simultaneously bolted forward.

The two men leaped with light steps, scaling the courtyard wall in the blink of an eye, and shouted in unison: "Xiaodao, are you alright?!"

Immediately following, both of their expressions froze. The scene before them vastly exceeded their expectations.

Hook lay flat on his back, having taken two bullets—one to the chest and one through his left eye. Fresh blood streamed across his face and pooled onto the ground.

Jiang Xiaodao stood astride over Hook's body, holding a donkey-driving leather whip in his right hand, bringing it down again and again with all his might onto Hook's motionless face.

"Fuck your mother, you dog! You whip me? I'll let you whip! I'll let you whip!"